as syria's regime appears to be crumbling, leon panetta announced today that 400 u.s. troops were be deployed to turkey to protect against a potential syrian missile attack. now, officials say the move is largely a symbolic show of force to signal the u.s. will support the defense of turkey. today russia is denying that one of its top diplomats said that president bashar al assad is losing control of his country. nbc is live for us in cairo. he has the latest. ayman, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. a series of rapid developments inside and outside the country. inside syria, first of all, rebels announced they made very important gains on the outskirts of the city of aleppo and the capital damascus. in aleppo they're reporting to have taken over a military base belonging to the regime and in damascus, they've taken over a military installation on the outside of that country's airport. that also links to the issue of outside support for the syrian regime, including russia which says it will stand by president bashar al assad despite comments yesterd